State lawmakers have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle a claim by a 15-year-old high school student who suffered chemical burns to his esophagus when he accidentally drank drain opener during a public school food service class.

In another settlement, the lawmakers agreed to pay $95,000 to a woman who was sexually assaulted by Maui Community Correctional Center Warden Albert Murashige while the woman was an inmate at the facility. Murashige later pleaded no contest to charges in the case, and was sentenced to a year in jail.

Those payments are part of a package of about $10.7 million in settlements, judgments and other demands the state has agreed to pay to settle about 40 lawsuits and other types of claims. Typically the state does not admit liability in the settlements, but makes the payments to resolve the suits.

State lawmakers approve similar bills each year, with the payouts varying in recent years from a low of about $2.45 million in 2005, to a recent high of about $16.6 million in 2003.

In the case of the 'Aiea High School student who drank drain opener, state lawmakers were told the student was instructed by a teacher to mix a batch of watered-down punch.

Instead, the student combined water with the contents of a bottle of Plug Away drain cleaner that had been left on a preparation table in the classroom, and drank some of the mixture, according to testimony submitted by the state attorney general's office.

The student became ill and had to be hospitalized. That particular brand of drain cleaner can be confused with punch syrup because they have similar colors and are sold in similar containers, according to the testimony.

Other claims lawmakers agreed to pay include: